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Ton Hammer!

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Cologne, Germany is hopping and
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/gamescom/2010">gamescom
is in full swing. Ten Ton Hammer's intrepid team on the show floor
includes Reuben "Sardu" Waters, who teases us today with reports that
href="http://tentonhammer.com/gw2">Guild Wars 2 is
worth the hype (more on that later),
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2658">Torchlight
II is too awesome for primetime viewing, Razer booth babes
wear black underwear and more in today's
href="http://tentonhammer.com/loading/2010/aug/19">Loading...
Live from gamescom.

width="100%">

The
Pulse

You vote with what you
view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result
is the Ten Ton Pulse (What
is The Pulse?).

Its hard to really imagine or even properly convey the sheer size and
scope of an event like
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/gamescom/2010">gamescom
without seeing it firsthand. The sprawling complex where the show is
being held this week in Cologne, Germany puts most stateside expos to
shame in both categories. Its also incredibly loud. Were talking loud
as in you cant hear the person standing right next to you because the
thundering PA systems in each hall are all pushing the decibel limits
to their extremes. At one point I found myself looking over my shoulder
because I could swear I was about to get run over by a freight train. I
can only imagine what things will be like today when the stampeding
public of gamers who are off for a national holiday gets thrown into
the mix.

One interesting thing we discovered almost immediately after hitting
the show floor is that one of the 10 massive expo halls is like some
kind of MMOG Mecca. I got that kid in candy store feeling as I realized
that titles such as Guild
Wars 2,
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2035">Rift,TERA
and Torchlight
II are all in neighboring booths. I have to give props to the
event organizers here for the near categorical breakdown between halls.
With a few exceptions, you can cut to the chase and dive directly into
checking out exactly the type of games youre into rather than needing
to spend unnecessary time fighting through crowds to get there.

Perhaps the biggest highlight from the day for me was getting my first
hands-on time with Guild
Wars 2. Not only did I discover that
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/gamescom2010/gw2/necromancer-confirmed">necromancers
are the fourth profession to be officially revealed for the
game, but I can safely say that so far ArenaNet is certainly walking
the walk they summarized in last weeks updated
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/features/editorials/mmo-manifesto">MMO
Manifesto. Well have a full report on why GW2 is worth all
the hype later this week as well as video of the game in action, so
keep your eyes peeled on our gamescom event coverage throughout the
week for a more in depth look.

Another day one highlight included getting our first chance to play the
highly anticipated
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2658">Torchlight
II. In a completely bizarre turn of events, however, the
gameplay itself was deemed too mature for the general public to view
from the edge of the booth. My personal theory here is that the game is
simply too powerful and locals feared what might happen were younger
generations exposed to too much awesome all at once.

So while the public demo for Torchlight II was so mighty it had to be
contained behind a black curtain to avoid corrupting European youth,
just one booth over Razer has models running around in little more than
black underwear with the company logo prominently displayed on their
butts which to me speaks volumes about cultural differences.

All in all the first day of the show was a good experience, and we look
forward to bringing you the latest and greatest news and info directly
from gamescom 2010 throughout the week. In the meantime be sure to hop
on over to the Loading forum and
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=52999">share
your thoughts on what the event has had to offer thus far!

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day

From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=3">Tavern
of the Ten Ton Hammer forum

From the Things That Make You Go "Duh!" Department comes today's epic
thread. An
href="http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29983/GDC_Europe_To_Succeed_In_FreeToPlay_Exploit_Human_Weaknesses.php">article
in Gamasutra yesterday, Teut Weidemann, lead designer of
Settlers Online for Ubisoft's Blue Byte studio, gave a talk at GDC
Europe saying that the key to free-to-play success is to exploit human
weakness. "As a caveat," the article explains, "Weidemann said that
first and foremost, developers have to make a fun game in order to
attract users. Then once those users are there, the mandate is to
figure out ways to monetize them, or else the game can't go on." (So,
like I said, "Duh!")

But
we Westerners still twitch at the term "monetize." And we're not too
fond of "exploit" or "weakness," either. And that's why there's a
discussion on this topic taking place in our forums.
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=52992">Join
it!

==============================

Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread

"I don't disagree with
anything I
saw. I have been writing for years, as you know well, that a lot of F2P
success has to do with our inability to manage money. That's just the
mechanics of it. This article addresses the psychology aptly."

The
latest Black Prophecy trailer from gamigo has been released for
gamescom 2010. Were treated to space station interiors, trading,
crafting, and, best of all, ship to ship space combat! This
free-to-play MMOG looks gorgeous and the combat looks intense. At Ten
Ton Hammer, we cant wait to start getting into some outer space
dogfights!

Just
when it seemed like Diablo III had gone silent again, Blizzard
Entertainment unveils new information about the game at gamescom. The
latest feature detailed by Blizzard is the Caravan system, which will
allow players to have a merry band of NPCs that follow them around
Sanctuary, setting up camp and providing players with a central hub for
quests, trade, and artisan crafting skills. Check out the
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/diabloIII/caravan/faq">full
FAQ for all the details. When you finish there, be sure to
check out our Diablo
III screenshot gallery for some new Caravan screenshots.

BioWare
has just released their trailer for their Dragon Age II RPG. The
cinematic trailer shows the protagonist of the game, Hawke, and some of
his fancy (and glowing) fighting moves. Unlike Dragon Age: Origins, the
main characters race, voice, and background are already set. While
disappointing to some, Im interested in seeing how strongly BioWare
crafts a story around the main character, Hawke. Dragon Age II hits the
streets on March 8, 2011.

Ten
Ton Hammer got to have some hands-on time with the upcoming Guild Wars
2 at gamescom 2010. We were surprised to see that the Necromancer was
confirmed as the fourth class and was playable at the event. How much
(or little) has the Necromancer changed since Guild Wars? Read on and
find out.

The
latest Mytheon trailer from gamigo has been released for gamescom 2010.
Overall, this trailer really puts gamers in the mood for some epic,
ancient world combat against the gods themselves. Are you ready to free
the mortals from the tyranny of petty gods? The free-to-play MMOG
combines elements of action/strategy games and roleplaying games. Don
your toga, grab your stones, and set forth to adventure!

Available
today and featuring a vast new wilderness area, scores of rare mobs,
more than a few epic encounters, tons of loot, a great story, and best
of all: underwater combat (a first for DDO), Update 6 has all the
hallmarks of another boundary-pushing DDO quest arc. We'll log into the
game with DDO Development Director Ian Currie and Producer Eric Boyer
for a hands-on tour of Update 6, and offer you our impressions (and our
screenshots) from this visually stunning update plus new details on
Update 7, coming this fall. It's all in our latest preview: Into the
Deeps: A Dev Tour of Dungeons & Dragons Online Update 6!

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/end-of-nations/preview/aug-2010-hands-on">The
Beginning of the End: A Hands-On Preview with
style="font-weight: bold;">End of Nations
title="http://www.tentonhammer.com/end-of-nations/preview/aug-2010-hands-on"
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/end-of-nations/preview/aug-2010-hands-on">